Brys, a Belgian coach, was handed his contract by Cameroon’s sports ministry on Monday. However, the nation’s football authorities, FECAFOOT, were absent at the event held in Yaonde.
FECAFOOT last week criticized Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, Cameroon’s sports minister, for appointing Brys, who has no prior experience as a national team coach. The 61-year-old Belgian also has no previous experience working in Africa.
Samuel Eto’o, FECAFOOT’s president and a well noted former player of the Indomitable Lions issued a statement on Monday excusing himself from Brys’s unveiling.
“We thank you for inviting us to the ceremony. Following this, we inform you of the fact that we received the letter two hours before the said ceremony,” Eto’o said.
“Unfortunately, we are busy organizing the funeral of our late Dad, and for this reason we will not be able to attend presence at the ceremony,” the FECAFOOT president said.
Eto’o’s father’s funeral is scheduled for the weekend.
The former national team player balked at Brys’ appointment and is now in a deepening standoff with the minister.
FILE - The president of Cameroon's football federation and a former award-winning international player, Samuel Eto'o, is pictured during the Africa Cup of Nations final between Algeria and Senegal in Cairo International stadium, on July 19, 2019.
In Cameroon, the government has long paid the salary of the national team coach and therefore held powerful sway over FECAFOOT’s affairs, even if such state interference is frowned upon by world football’s governing body FIFA.
Any heightened dispute risks a potential ban from international competition for Cameroon, one of the heavyweights of African football.
FECAFOOT held an emergency meeting on Saturday and asked Eto’o to propose an alternative coach for the Indomitable Lions. Earlier on the weekend, the minister defended Brys’s appointment, saying he had acted in accordance with national and international regulations.
In a letter to FECAFOOT, Kombi said his ministry’s appointment of coaching staff “in no way affects the autonomy of FECAFOOT and does not violate any of the ‘supranational regulations.”
The sports authority said FECAFOOT had suggested three candidates to the ministry but their salary demands ranged between 1.5 million euros and 2.5 million euros ($1.63 million and $2.71 million) per year.
“These are excessive amounts never paid to any coach in the history of the Indomitable Lions,” Kombi said.